Hi everyone,
I'm a vegetarian, borderline vegan. I tried being vegan for several months but found the hidden ingredients too much to keep up with. My current philosophy is to avoid animal products as much as possible, but occasionally consuming whey, or something that has eggs, or chocolate is acceptable.

I am learning to body build, and am struggling with it. I have a freind who is helping me come up with a program, but he's a meat eater who doesn't understand the veg lifestyle.

I hope to ask ALOT of questions here and learn how to get the results I want.

Welcome to the board ! Sounds like your philosophy could be a good start for going vegan eventually . The truth is that after a while you learn in which products to expect non vegan stuff, and it gets easy to avoid them. Especially if buy mostly basic stuff and not so much processed food. Anyway, good luck with your training .

I was the same way at first. I was reading labels all the time and it was frustrating to see refined sugars, egg whites, or milk products in some foods that I was used to buying as a non-vegan. I decided to go vegan pretty much from the beginning of giving up meat, so when I saw those labels, I just put the foods back and went with fruits, veggies, nuts, and other foods that were all vegan.

Now, 11 years later, I hardly ever look at labels because I know what is vegan and what isn't. It is also really easy if you eat mostly raw foods, they can't hide whey inside an apple (at least I hope not!)

If you shop at farmer's markets or co-ops you will also be able to find tons of vegan foods so reading labels won't take that much time. Many products are labeled "VEGAN" on them so you don't have to read through the whole list. That is one of my favorite aspects of labeling.

We have a few bodybuilders around here too, so we can help you out.

Explore the board and you'll learn tons of helpful info. Great to have you as part of the group!

It's true--it's a huge pain in the butt to read everything (and find non-vegan ingredients in so much), but it really does get better. I had to really increase my cooking and lower my reliance on pre-packaged foods when I became vegan. I see that as a good thing!